Advent day nine .. why do we wear Christmas Jumpers? 

See day 8 here

We all love a Christmas jumper but they can actually be traced back to the 1890's ... 

In the 1890's the Christmas jumper can be traced back to the chunky/heavy knitted jumper hand knitted in Scandinavia and Iceland. They had contrasting knitted patterns on, like the fair isle knits that are popular today. It was believed to distinguish fishers from other communities and potentially as a way of identifying their bodies if they drowned at sea. The jumper only became popular once Skier's starting wearing them. As well as having the geometric knitting patterns on, they also had colours and designs influenced by forest scenery on. After the Spanish flu pandemic Skiing became a more popular sport, so even more people began to wear these jumpers. It became a symbol of glamour and luxury and when hollywood stars such as Gary Cooper, Clark Gable and Ingrid Bergman wore these jumpers, the look became popular among those who couldn't afford to ski and would knit these jumpers for themselves. 

In the 60's knitwear was used in Christmas advertising campaigns and jumpers similar to the skiing ones were worn in films, further elevating its status as a staple clothing item. 

Once we get to Home Alone in 1990, Kevin is wearing a jumper which resembles the early skiing knitwear - rather than the bold characters/patterns we have now - this may be because characters and novelty jumpers just weren't popular or hadn't been introduced in 1990, many still had a their Grandmas knitting them a Christmas jumper perhaps?! Also the idea of the Christmas jumper still wasn't popular - our sense of humour has definitely got better over the years to embrace the novelty!